Virtual Campus: Scenarios, Obstacles and Experiences

The need to make use of the growing source of learning material available through the internet and other computer networks confronts educational systems worldwide. The recent idea of creating Virtual Campuses may be viewed as an attempt to counter this challenge and to revive the position of universities as traditional organizers of knowledge. The challenge is twofold: to upgrade the current teaching and learning processes, and to adapt the organization to an open world of networked communication. So far limited experience exists as how to reach these goals. In this paper, virtual learning and institutional change are discussed as two major ingredients to change. Along these key concepts, results from a survey of German universities are presented, complemented by experiences from a pilot study. The empirical studies serve to depict the range of scenarios and obstacles and should help to identify development paths towards a Virtual Campus.